


Mind Games

by squiccoon



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Corruption AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:42:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27415927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squiccoon/pseuds/squiccoon
Summary: Fundy had been working on a new program for Minecraft that allowed the player to view their immediate surroundings as though they were in Minecraft. With the help of a special headset, he could interact with the real world in a virtual reality.In the process of making this program, Dream volunteers to help him out and act as his guinea pig. Fundy complies and, over a voice call, helps Dream replicate his headset. After sending him the program, Dream experiences Minecraft like never before in his own home until something unexpected happens causing his headset to blow up and him to blackout.When he next awakes, things are... different. Reality is real and Minecraft is Minecraft. But over the course of the next few days, they begin to merge until Dream can no longer distinguish between the two.Trapped between two worlds, Dream asks for his friends' help. But what do you do when your friend confuses you for a foe? What do you do when they're too afraid to escape? What do you do when the impossible becomes possible?This is an AU created by Iffy Taffy on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/iffy.taffy/). Please check them out! I've taken inspiration from their Corrupted AU comic, so kudos to them!
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Mind Games

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: this will have slow updates since I'm currently working on 2 other books.
> 
> Regardless though, thank you for taking the time to read this chapter and I hope you have a great day/night/evening!
> 
> Also! If anything is incorrect or doesn't make sense, please tell me! I'll fix them as soon as possible! Thank you again!

"Okay, I'm sending you the plugin now, Dream. Thanks a lot for helping me out with this."

"No worries, Fundy. I've been wanting to test out your plugin ever since you told me you were making it, so thank you for letting me."

"You're welcome! I haven't tested it myself, unfortunately, but everything should be fine if you carried out my instructions perfectly. Is the headset alright?"

"Yeah, it's all put together." Shuffling was heard on the other side of the call as Dream put the headset on. "Now run by me again what I'm supposed to do. We need to get this absolutely perfect."

"That's right. I would like to preface again before we start that this won't cause you any harm," Fundy said as he went through his instructions on the document he had on his monitor, making sure he hadn't forgotten anything. "Much like the previous program where you could make your player model move and act based on what you're thinking, this program will translate the patterns of your brain into Minecraft. It will take into account your different senses and project them into the Minecraft world which is also this world. Do you understand?"

"So basically whatever I see and hear will also appear in Minecraft?"

"Yes, in a way." Fundy rubbed his eyes, tired from the many nights he poured into this project. "I've included other mods for Minecraft to allow for anything and everything you see in the real world to also be seen in Minecraft. For example, your computer will appear as a computer selected from one of those mods. It may not look the same but it's the best I can do. You have the headset connected to your computer too, right?"

"Yep!"

"In that case, whatever you have on your computer now should also be shown on your computer in Minecraft, allowing us to continue talking to each other."

"What about noises? Or smell? Will they be affected?"

"No, those are fine. You should be able to hear and smell things like usual. Whatever you touch should be the same as though you were touching them in real life too, so no worries there."

"Are you sure you want to carry this out?"

"Wha—I should be the one asking you that, Dream. You're the one offering to be the tester. The guinea pig of my experiment."

"Yeah, and I'm all for it. If I wanted to stop then I would've told you. But, Fundy, you sound really tired. Like, _really_ tired and I know for a fact you've put a lot of effort into this. We can continue this tomorrow—"

"No, no, it's fine! I'm fine!" There was silence as he stifled a yawn and rubbed his eyes harder, not wanting Dream to hear just how tired he really was. "Let's get on with this and then I'll... I'll go to sleep after."

"If you say so."

"Right, so once you've put on the headset you'll need to run the plugin in Minecraft. After that, you should be all good to go."

"Alright, time to get started! I'm excited, Fundy. I can't deny how excited I am right now."

"Me too. I'm interested to see how this will all go."

As Fundy waited for Dream to load up Minecraft, he looked to his own headset and wondered whether he should join Dream in this expedition. When he heard Dream say he was ready, he pulled up another document with a list detailing everything he wanted to know and told to Dream to begin. 

A few minutes of silence passed, Fundy sitting very still in his chair while Dream watched the world's seed generate. Fundy could feel his eyelids growing heavier by the second and just as he was about to nod off, a sharp gasp jolted him awake and he scrambled for his mic. "Dream! Dream! Are you okay?! What happened?!"

"Fundy!" Dream shouted back. "It worked! The plugin worked! I can see everything!"

"You can?!" Fundy typed away furiously on his keyboard as he asked questions. "What can you see? Does your room look like it's made in Minecraft? What about your computer or the desk? Is anything missing?"

"No! Nothing's missing! Everything is here! My chair, my computer, my desk, my keyboard and monitor... even my acoustic panels are here!"

"And it's all Minecraft?"

"Yes!"

There was a huge sigh of relief as Fund sunk into his chair, a big smile playing on his face. He had done it. He had created Minecraft in the real world. He had done it. "Dream."

"Yeah, Fundy?"

"You don't know how unbelievably happy I am right now. Tears—literal tears—are falling down my face! I'm just... I'm so happy."

"You should be happy, Fundy. You did this and it works!" Dream wandered around his room, picking items up and inspecting how they look in the world of Minecraft. "Uh, two questions, Fundy. Firstly, am I meant to be my player model or am I meant to be me?"

"You should be your player model unless I did something wrong..." Fundy muttered as he typed out the possible problem on his document. "Are you seeing your player model's hands or your own?"

"I'm currently seeing my own. It's not that big of a deal, is it? I can pick things up easily and turn them around as I would normally."

"No, it's not a problem. I wanted to make it as close to Minecraft as possible though..."

"I think it's fine like this, but if you want to fix it then sure." Dream picked up the water bottle he had sitting on the side of his desk and searched all over it. "My second question is how do I access my inventory? I don't see any prompt for it."

"Oh, right. To access your inventory, all you have to do is tap the side of your leg. You know, like where your pockets would be if you have any."

"Okay, I've got it!" He placed the water bottle in his inventory and tapped his leg again to close it, only to open it again to look at his character. "If it's of any consolation, Fundy, the player model when you open your inventory is the one you use in-game. So at least that works."

"Mhm, okay..." Pondering over what part of the plugin didn't work, there was a knocking sound coming from Dream's door. "Did you hear that, Dream? Did you hear it alright?"

"Yeah, I heard it. But there shouldn't be anybody here."

"What do you mean?"

"My whole family decided to go on vacation this week but I chose to stay..." 

His voice grew distant as he moved further away from the mic. Suddenly, there was a violent slam and a muffled groan from something other than Dream. "Dream? Is everything alright?"

"Fundy!" He yelled from across the room, shutting his door forcefully. "There's a zombie! There's a zombie outside my door!"

"What?!" Fundy could hardly believe it. A zombie? In real life?! "What does the zombie look like? Does it look like a Minecraft zombie or human?"

"Minecraft zombie!" Dream grunted as he continued to hold the door close. "Fundy, I don't think I can hold this door any longer! What am I meant to do?!"

"I-I don't know! Fight it! Punch it or something! It should go down in a few hits like a normal zombie!" Tense in his seat, Fundy gripped the arms of his chair as he heard Dream grunt and his door bang open. A low growl sent a shiver down his spine until he heard the thwack of something being hit. "Dream? Are you still there?"

There was another thwack followed by a pained groan and then silence. Fearing the worst, Fundy sighed with relief at the sound of his friend's panting breath. "Was that... supposed... to happen? Fundy?"

"I-I-It works like normal Minecraft, so I assume it spawned mobs in because it's night-time..."

"It's the middle of the day, Fundy. There shouldn't be any mobs spawning."

"Maybe your room is poorly lit? I don't know, I'm trying to figure out myself whether I've done something to them." He looked to his notes, checking to see if he had made any plans on changing the spawn of mobs, and stopped when he heard a door close. "Did you just close your door?"

"Yeah," was Dream's gruff reply. "If anymore mobs are going to be spawning in my house, then I want as much warning as I can get before they attack. Fundy, this doesn't make sense. I thought this plugin was meant to take whatever I see and turn it into Minecraft."

"Well, yes and no. I only customised the plugin to make your immediate surroundings look and act like Minecraft, so I didn't make any changes to the mobs or anything. Whatever you're seeing is only happening for you in-game and not in real life."

"Then how come you were able to hear the zombie?"

"I think it's probably the headset? You've still got it connected to the computer, after all. But that doesn't explain why mobs are spawning—"

Just as Fundy said that, more growling and groaning could be heard behind Dream's door. There was a slight hitch in Dream's breath as his door flew open and collided with the adjacent wall. "Fundy! There's more of them!"

"How many?!"

"Three? Maybe four?! Fundy! I don't have much room to avoid them!" 

The zombie's growling grew louder as they entered the room, making their way towards Dream. Fundy could hear Dream's grunts and punches being thrown at them before a blood-curdling scream rang in his ears. "DREAM?!"

"FUNDY, HELP! AAAAGGGHHH!"

"DREAM!" Looking over his notes again, he rushed to find his command inputs while Dream continued crying for help. There was a loud bang like an explosion that was shortly followed by a thud. Finally finding what he set as the 'Options Menu', Fundy yelled, "TAP YOUR CHEST, DREAM! TAP IT QUICKLY!"

His heart was pumping. His heart was thumping. The dull, thudding drone of his heartbeat echoed in his ears as he stared wide-eyed at his monitor, waiting for any sign of Dream coming back. Any sign will do. Sobbing, crying, shrieking, yelling; anything would do except the quietness that he heard now. 

Nothing. 

There was nothing on the other end of the call. Slowly, his head fell into his hand, tears pricking the corners of his eyes. Slamming his fist on the table, he regretted ever coming up with project. He regretted putting all the effort towards it. He regretted feeling so proud of his earlier accomplishment when everything worked. But most of all, he regretted letting Dream test it.

He should have done it on his own. He should have carried out his own experiments and put himself in harm's way. He should have been the one to be attacked by imaginary zombies instead of Dream. He should have never let anyone else try it before him.

But he did.

As he sat and moped for the loss of his friend, he failed to hear the soft but rough grunt of someone in pain, and the slow shuffle of a person crawling on the ground. When Dream finally made it to his computer, Fundy's face was covered in tears and his voice shook as he held back sobs. "D-Dream? D-Dream, are y-you th-th-there? Dream?"

He remained silent, letting Fundy's questions wash over him. He wasn't sure how long he had been knocked out but he assumed it had been quite a while given how hysterical Fundy was being. His body hurt with every one of his movements, his head feeling the worse as he looked around his room; broken pieces of equipment lay around him from when he used them as makeshift weapons.

Touching his head, he felt the ends of his hair singed and burned from where the headset had exploded. However, despite it backfiring and nearly causing him a concussion, it continued to work fine and let him see the world in Minecraft form. One thing he took great notice of was the lack of mobs. They had all seemingly disappeared when the explosion happened.

Baffled by it all, he was brought back to reality when Fundy progressively got louder and more worried. "Sorry, Fundy. I was just... trying to figure things out."

"Are you okay, Dream?" Fundy asked, concern heavily lacing his voice. "If it's alright with you, could you tell me what happened? You didn't respond for a long time after that explosion."

"So you heard it too?" Fundy nodded, humming affirmatively when he realised that Dream couldn't see him. "Well after that, I'm not sure what happened. I only remember being swarmed by the zombies, me screaming for help and then the explosion. After that, I came to and everything's fine again. No mobs, no nothing. Except for my broken equipment and the pain all over my body."

"Dream," Fundy began, his words shaking as he struggled to understand everything that happened, "I want you to know that everything you've experienced shouldn't have happened. The pain you felt when those zombies attacked... you weren't meant to feel anything because they're not real. You would have been punching air if that were true, but that wasn't the case, was it?"

Dream, once again, let all of Fundy's words wash over him. Some of his words he picked up such as 'pain' and 'zombie', but more importantly he hung onto the words 'not real'. Just how much of this Minecraft world wasn't real? If the zombies weren't supposed to be real, then how many more mobs would also be 'not real'? Not to mention their spawn rate is insane and quite possibly messed up if they're able to spawn in broad daylight in a well-lit house.

Closing his eyes, he grunted in response to Fundy who was still asking questions and explaining what should have happened and what shouldn't have. "I can't imagine what could possibly have made those zombies real unless there was something there. But there wasn't! There couldn't have been! Otherwise you would have seen them when you woke up. I'm sure of that!"

"Fundy," he groaned, lolling his head to the side and consequently closer to his mic, "let's leave this experiment for now. You've been working non-stop on this project for months now and I'm pretty exhausted myself after that incident. Do you think we could save this for another day perhaps?"

"I... I'd be more than happy to, Dream," he uttered. Fundy continued to write down more notes of Dream's behaviour, more specifically his lack of attention and desire to move past what happened. "But before you go, Dream, I have one last question for you. Maybe a few more than one..."

"What is it?" Dream answered much rougher than he intended, but didn't care. He was tired and in pain; he wanted nothing more than to go to bed and forget everything he had experienced that day.

"Do you know what caused the explosion? I don't think you were conscious when I told you about tapping your chest. That's how you enter the options menu and you can choose to quit the game from there."

"No, I wasn't conscious when you said that. At least, I don't think I was." Dream tried hard to remember if Fundy ever said that to him but wasn't able to. "It was the headset that exploded although I'm not sure why. I'm just glad that it didn't blow my brains out or something."

He chuckled if but to alleviate the pain. It didn't help as ripples of laughter caused his whole body to ache. Not to mention that Fundy wasn't laughing too, making him think that something more serious was at hand. When nothing came out of the silence between them, Dream was just about to excuse himself but Fundy cut in. "Dream, I want you to do me a favour. It's not a big one and I hope you understand where I'm coming from when I say it."

"I'm all ears, Fundy. What do you want me to do?"

"I want you... I want you to not touch the headset. Ever." He spoke gravely, stating what he wanted in as eloquent a manner as he possibly could. "Take off the headset and _never_ touch it again. Do what you want to get rid of it, I don't care. What I do care about is that you don't try and attempt to use it again. Can you do that for me?"

There was a sigh as the dirty-blond and slightly singed man took off the headset, setting it on his desk out of the way of everything else. "Yeah, I can do that. But I still want to help with your research. I'm still _very_ interested in this plugin you've created and I'm more than happy to help carry out anymore experiments you may have fore it."

"I'll keep that in mind." 

Dream picked up on Fundy's hesitation. He knew full well that Fundy had no intention of letting him try the plugin again. Not that he really wanted to; after what happened with the zombies, he was more than happy to just let it slide and never come back to it. But still, to project Minecraft into real life or real life into Minecraft... It was an enormous feat to accomplish.

Truly, a revolution in gaming.

"Hey, Dream?" Fundy called out. "Get some rest, okay? I'll talk to you tomorrow and see how you're going, alright?"

"Yeah, okay. Goodbye, Fundy."

"Goodbye, Dream."

As soon as he finished his sentence, the call ended and Fundy was left on his own, thinking about how to fix the plugin. Dream on the other hand, shut down his computer and left. He didn't look back as he closed the door to his recording room. He only wanted to clear his mind and sleep, maybe even get a drink.

Walking down the stairs to his living room, Dream had almost made it to the kitchen when he was struck by a searing pain on the side of his head. Clutching his head, he slowly walked the rest of the way into the kitchen and reached into one of the top cabinets for a glass however, his vision grew blearier by the second. He knocked over the glass and stumbled back into his counter, avoiding the shattered glass on the floor, before slumping down against it. 

The pain was quickly becoming unbearable as Dream cried out, pulling at his hair and writhing on the ground. Bits of glass pricked his skin—long, thin cuts appearing on his arms—as he struggled to cope with the pain, tears running down his face and hair plastered to his skin. Breathing hard and fast, he desperately wished for the pain to stop but to no avail. Shaking uncontrollably, Dream gasped for air only to violently convulse and bash his head against the counter behind him, his eyes rolling to the back of his head and falling unconscious.


End file.
